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Are you wondering if a site is eligible to participate as an open site in the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP)?
- To be open to all children in the area, a site must be located where at least 50 percent of the children are eligible for free/reduced-price meals.
- Public school and census data are used to determine eligible areas for the SFSP. Once a site is determined to be area eligible, the eligibility is good for five years.
- To see school- and census-eligible areas, check out the list of schools that are eligible based on school data or view the Child Nutrition Program Eligibility Map
- To check a site’s eligibility on the map, open the map and select the Summer Meal Programs bar on the right. Census-eligible areas will be shaded pink and school data-eligible areas will be dotted. Type in a site address at the top of the map and select Map Address. If the red balloon is in a pink-shaded area, or a dotted area, the site is area eligible.
Sponsors can check the dates of eligibility for renewing SFSP sites by logging into CLiCS and going to the 2019 SFSP site application, in the site participation eligibility section.
If a site is not area eligible, but is serving a group of children and over 50 percent of them are eligible for free/reduced-price meals, other methods may be used to qualify the site. For more information, check out the site eligibility section in the USDA Administrative Guidance for Sponsors or contact our office at mde.fns@state.mn.us or 800-366-8922 (toll free).
SFSP training will be offered online again this year, so sponsors and staff can access it at any time. The following courses will be available online in March on the SFSP Training webpage.
- Civil Rights (45 minutes)
- The SFSP Basics (also known as MDE – 100) includes 19 interactive courses, each about 10-15 minutes long.
- The SFSP Refresher (also known as MDE – 170) includes three short courses, one of which is a shortened version of the Civil Rights course. (one hour)
- New this year! Menu Building Basics – Utilizing Child Nutrition (CN) Labels and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Recipes to Build a Cycle Menu (one hour)
- New this year! SFSP Meal Planning for Summer Success! (one hour)
Save the date! A half-day in-person workshop will be offered on April 23.
This workshop is not a comprehensive SFSP training and is not required, but is intended to supplement the online training. Those who are new to the SFSP and register for the in-person workshop must view the online Basics courses prior to attending the in-person workshop. A registration link for the in-person workshop will be available on the SFSP Training webpage in March.
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- The 2019 summer food program applications should be available in CLiCS the last week in March, and are due May 15. Select Program Year 2020 when applying. Application instructions will be available on the SFSP Applications webpage in March.
- Renewing SFSP sponsors do not need to submit a declaration of intent.
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Not planning to renew your SFSP application this summer? Please send a message to fns@state.mn.us and let us know the reason.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture has announced the Summer Food Service Program (SFSP) reimbursement rates for calendar year 2019. You can see the rates and more details at the 2019 SFSP Reimubrsement Rates info sheet.
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